29 Sep 2022

A piece by Kevin Grecksch of University of Oxford from The Conversation: Prolonged periods of intense heat affected large parts of the UK and Europe this summer. These conditions forced parts of the UK into an official drought, with restrictions on water use imposed for the first time since 2012. Despite recent autumnal weather, parts of the country remain […]

29 Sep 2022

The Environment Agency (EA) has been accused of allowing water firms to pollute England’s rivers, the BBC has reported. Whistleblowers said it ignored its duties and failed to stop firms pouring raw sewage into the country’s rivers. The claims feature in the film “SEVERN: the poisoning of Britain’s Amazon”.     However, the EA said […]

29 Sep 2022

The BBC reported that the Undertones singer Feargal Sharkey has made a surprise appearance at the Labour Party conference to make a speech on water pollution.   The environmental campaigner and Teenage Kicks singer says water companies are “profiteering” while every river in England is polluted, often by the industry itself. The rock band singer highlights […]

08 Sep 2022

Testing of rivers in England has fallen dramatically in the past 10 years, with experts warning it leaves a vacuum of knowledge about the effects of pollution. Environment Agency data shows its river testing has fallen from nearly 100,000 samples a year in 2012 to 41,519 in 2021 – the lowest level of sampling in 20 years […]

08 Sep 2022

Chantelle Grundy, Access and Environment Lead at British Canoeing, shares how we can take action to level up access to our blue spaces. A blog from the Wildlife and Countryside Link website. There is a very good reason why we humans are drawn to lakes, rivers, oceans and pools. Water is intrinsic to our very […]

08 Sep 2022

Campaigners for improved water quality in a Suffolk river are planning to submit an application to make it the third in England with bathing water status. Why are they doing it and what would it mean to those who go into the water there? The ‘Save the Deben’ environmental campaign group is behind the bid […]

08 Sep 2022

Defra have announced the projects that will receive funding from the Landscape Recovery Scheme. The initiative is being hailed by land managers and conservationists as the most “exciting and important” step in a generation to restore lost biodiversity. Projects include recreating water meadows in the Cotswolds, reviving eel-rich waterways in the Severn Valley, and restoring […]